- Lebanon: Israeli forces murder three journalists
Source: Sky News [UK]
“All three people who died in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon were television journalists, it has been confirmed. The Lebanese trio were travelling in a car when they were killed on Saturday. Fatima Ftouni, an Al Mayadeen reporter, and Ali Shoaib, an Al Manar correspondent, were among those who died. It has emerged the third person killed was Ms Ftouni’s brother, cameraman Mohammed Ftouni. Fatima Ftouni had done a live report from southern Lebanon just before the strike in the Jezzine region. … Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said the attack on the journalists was a war crime. … The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) described the bombing as a ‘targeted strike’ and claimed that Ali Shoaib was ‘a terrorist in the intelligence unit of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.’ It added: ‘Additionally, the terrorist engaged in incitement against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, using his position as a channel to disseminate Hezbollah propaganda materials.'” (03/28/26)
https://news.sky.com/story/three-lebanese-journalists-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-on-car-13525607
- US House Judiciary Committee calls out “monopoly” on medical resident matching
Source: The Hill
“In a report released Friday, the House Judiciary Committee found that the U.S. system for matching resident physicians to programs is monopolistic and anticompetitive. Every year, resident physicians in the U.S. learn which program they’ve been placed in. This is operated through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), commonly referred to as the ‘Match.’ The House Judiciary Committee determined in its investigation that the way residency programs are matched is the result of an ‘entrenched monopoly shielded from scrutiny by government protectionism.'” (03/27/26)
https://thehill.com/newsletters/health-care/5805266-house-judiciary-resident-matching-monopoly/
- Nepal: Former PM arrested over deaths during Gen Z protests
Source: Reuters
“Nepal’s former prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was arrested on Saturday as police investigate whether he was negligent in failing to prevent dozens of deaths in a crackdown on Gen Z-led anti-corruption protests last September, officials said. Oli’s arrest, which his lawyer said was illegal and sparked protests by supporters who clashed with police, followed rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah’s swearing in as prime minister on Friday and a recommendation by a panel investigating violence during the protests that he should be prosecuted for negligence. His former home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, was also arrested. Seventy-six people were killed last September during a police crackdown and arson and violent unrest during the protests, which led to Oli’s resignation.” (03/28/26)
- Trump signs order to pay airport gropers after Congress fails to agree on heimatschutz funding
Source: WBUR News [US state media]
“President Donald Trump on Friday signed a promised executive action to pay Transportation Security Administration employees after a bid to end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security abruptly fell apart in Congress. Trump signed the action with an eye toward easing long security lines at many of the nation’s top airports. ‘America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,’ Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments. He added, ‘I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.’ Trump said his administration would use ‘funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations’ for the payments.” (03/28/26)
- Yemen: Houthis launch missile attack on Israel as war with Iran intensifies
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels [sic] have attacked Israel with a barrage of ballistic missiles – their first such strikes since the United States-Israeli war on Iran began. Brigadier-General Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, announced the attack on Saturday on the rebels’ [sic] Al Masirah satellite television. … Sirens went off around Beersheba and the area near Israel’s main nuclear research centre for the third time overnight Friday into Saturday as Iran and Hezbollah continued to fire on Israel. No casualties or damage were reported.” (03/28/26)
- Secret Service agent on Jill Biden’s detail shoots himself in leg
Source: United Press International
“A U.S. Secret Service agent on former first lady Jill Biden’s detail shot himself in the leg by mistake Friday in Philadelphia, the agency announced. Around 8:30 a.m., the agent sustained ‘a non-life-threatening injury following a negligent discharge while handling a service weapon at the Philadelphia International Airport during a protective assignment,’ a Secret Service statement issued to ABC News said.” (03/27/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/03/27/jill-biden-secret-service/4991774646703/
- Mongolia: Prime minister resigns following tensions within the ruling party
Source: Associated Press
“Mongolia’s Prime Minister Zandanshatar Gombojav resigned Friday after rising tensions within the ruling Mongolian People’s Party and a parliamentary boycott by the opposition. The parliament accepted Zandanshatar’s resignation. The opposition Democratic Party earlier this month launched a boycott of parliamentary activity, citing concerns over the concentration of power within the ruling party. There have been months of corruption allegations against Justice Minister Enkhbayar Battumur, a close ally of Zandanshatar, who has not been accused.” (03/27/26)
- As War Rages vs. Iran, Time for Peace in Ukraine
Source: Real Clear Politics
by Steve Cortes“As the world understandably focuses on the Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine war shifts to a fulcrum moment. This new juncture provides President Trump with an opportunity to prove that he is still, indeed, a president for peace. He can reaffirm to his base, and to the world, that he is the negotiator-in-chief who brokers diplomatic solutions across the globe, including the historic Abraham Accords. Regarding the Trump base, polling shows that only 38% of Republican voters now believe that the war vs. Iran will conclude in the days or weeks to come. Moreover, 37% of GOP voters oppose any ground troops in Iran. So, opportunity beckons in the Black Sea region. In a recent breakout interview by the Associated Press of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former top military commander of Ukraine, provides startling revelations regarding his battles with Zelensky – and the relevance for the future of postwar Ukraine.” (03/28/26)
- The End of Immigration
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Donald Trump’s impulsive decision to deploy large numbers of ICE agents to hang out at America’s airport Cinnabons — there’s no indication that they are actually helping demoralized, unpaid TSA employees deal with long lines at airport security — may have unintended political consequences: it will remind Americans about how much they dislike ICE and the great harm that it’s doing. Nonetheless, recent data show that the administration’s crackdown on immigration is working. Immigration to the United States is plunging and may be about to go into reverse. And that plunge is making America poorer and weaker – now and in the long-run.” (03/27/26)
- Hollywood Still Trying To Corrupt J. R. R. Tolkien’s Work
Source: The Federalist
by John Daniel Davidson“If you thought Hollywood was done trying to corrupt and destroy the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien, think again. This week Variety reported that Warner Brothers announced yet another Lord Of The Rings spinoff film is in development — and that Stephen Colbert and his son are writing it. Colbert is apparently a ‘vocal Tolkien fanatic,’ and is working on a script derived from the early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring that didn’t make it into Peter Jackson’s acclaimed trilogy. … Colbert said he pitched Jackson on the idea of a film ‘that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?’ Based on the synopsis of Colbert’s script, the answer is clearly no.” (03/27/26)
https://thefederalist.com/2026/03/27/hollywood-is-still-trying-to-corrupt-j-r-r-tolkiens-work/
- Why We Keep Stumbling into Stupid Wars
Source: NonZero Newsletter
by Robert Wright“Why is the current war happening? If you want to answer that question in a broad sense—in a way that applies not just to the Iran war but to other needless bursts of carnage of the past and future — I would direct your attention to an exchange that took place this week on a New York Times podcast called The Opinions. The exchange was between Times columnist David French and retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal …. The roles played by the two men aren’t what you might expect based on their job descriptions. It wasn’t the career Army officer who exemplified the narrowly tribalistic perspective and the writer for the liberal media who offered the more balanced and pacific view. Rather, it was the professional soldier who brought the enlightenment and the journalist who lacked it — and who showed no signs of absorbing any of it.” (03/27/26)
- If You’d Only Oppose The Iran War When There’s Boots On The Ground, You’re A Scumbag
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“LBC has a report titled ‘Republicans ‘storm out’ of Iran briefing as they claim US ‘war machine’ is trying to put boots on ground’ about MAGA lawmakers whining that Trump’s war looks set to turn into a land invasion. I get so tired of all this American hand-wringing about ‘boots on the ground.’ It’s a symptom of a wildly sick dystopia that these people are fine with raining military explosives on a densely populated city but draw the line at putting American troops in the line of fire. Sure, killing kids is fine, just don’t put boots on the ground! Sure you can rain hellfire on hospitals, homes and schools for weeks, just make sure you do all your massacring from the sky where nobody can return fire. Killing is okie dokie, so long as our troops aren’t the ones getting killed.” (03/28/26)
- Atlanta, TSA, and a Test Case for Interventionist Non-Intervention
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter“[T]he concept of interventionist non-intervention argues that the state — following coercive taxation and monopolization or competition suppression — can intervene through doing ‘nothing,’ that is, paid non-delivery of promised and monopolized service. The core elements of interventionist non-intervention are: 1) the binary intervention of coercive taxation where citizens are forced to pay for a service regardless of whether or not they receive it; 2) the triangular interventions of monopolization or competition suppression where the state claims exclusive domain over the service provision; and, 3) non-delivery wherein the state then fails or refuses to provide the monopolized service for which it has extracted payment, in part or in whole.” (03/27/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/atlanta-tsa-and-test-case-interventionist-non-intervention
- The Last Lesson My Mother Taught Me
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon“My mother did not die in an intensive care unit. She was not surrounded by machines, alarms, or artificial light. She died at home, in a room imbued with the quiet weight of memory. Decades of life were embedded in those walls, which had witnessed birthdays, conversations, laughter, arguments, and the countless ordinary moments that, in retrospect, constitute the true foundation of a life. A peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line rested in her arm, serving not as a symbol of escalation but as an instrument of compassion. Medications were given to relieve discomfort rather than to reverse disease. Nurses entered the room with calm, deliberate purpose rather than urgency. Their voices were soft, their movements measured. Their objective was not to save her life, but to honor it.” (03/27/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-last-lesson-my-mother-taught-me/
- How Taxes Are Reshaping Where Americans Live and Work
Source: Reason
by Jared Dillian“Increasing income taxes almost always results in less revenue and less economic activity.” (03/27/26)
https://reason.com/2026/03/27/how-taxes-are-reshaping-where-americans-live-and-work/
- We Are on the Road to Serfdom
Source: Town Hall
by Les Rubin“Friedrich Hayek published The Road to Serfdom in 1944, a classic book on economics for the ages. We would do well to understand his message, because it reads today less like a theory and more like a warning. What Hayek described is unfolding right before our eyes, yet it is so gradual and insidious that few recognize it is happening. Hayek believed prosperity and freedom are inseparable. In [his book], he warned about what happens when government begins to control economic decision-making through central planning. The result, he argued, is the slow erosion of freedom. When societies abandon individualism and classical liberal economics, the power of the state expands and the liberty of the citizen contracts. Eventually, this evolves to government control.” (03/28/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/les-rubin/2026/03/28/we-are-on-the-road-to-serfdom-n2673569
- Suspending the Jones Act: Lessons from the Conflict with Iran
Source: Independent Institute
by Caleb Petitt“The Trump administration’s suspension of the Jones Act is well-reasoned; the Jones Act has kept oil prices in America higher than they would otherwise have been by increasing the cost of transporting oil. The Jones Act forces domestic shippers to use expensive ships with expensive crews, which drives up shipping costs beyond what a free market would bear. However, paying more for domestic shipping could easily be worth the cost if it made America more secure. Unfortunately, the Jones Act is a hindrance to American security.” (03/27/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/03/27/suspending-jones-act-iran/
- The transaction explosion and the cost of judgment
Source: Niskanen Center
by Daniel Wilf-Townsend“Our civil justice institutions are about 100 years old, dating back to the progressive era and the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. But the world has changed a lot since then. In particular, the number of transactions in society has exploded, as population growth, economic growth, and technological change have exponentially increased the activity in society that leads to disputes. Separately, alongside the rise in civil disputes, the cost of the time and attention of legally trained experts has skyrocketed, rising faster than inflation for generations.” (03/27/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-transaction-explosion-and-the-cost-of-judgment
- Immigration, Culture, and Albert Jay Nock
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“[W]e require no heroic assumptions to understand that free immigration is good. New people and different ways of doing and seeing things mix with the existing cultural elements to produce, on the whole, innovation and immense general benefits. (See the work of Julian Simon and Matt Ridley.) All we need is freedom, an expectation of self-responsibility, and no government interference. In those conditions, reality and capitalism teach and reward virtue.” (03/27/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-immigration-culture-and-albert
- Profiles in Cowardice: Our Four Ex-Presidents Still Won’t Speak Out Against Trump!
Source: Common Dreams
by Ralph Nader“What should the American people, especially the hundreds of millions of their voters, expect Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden to do against the vicious, serial law-violating, violent, corrupt, agency-dismantling Donald Trump and the crony Trumpsters who are wrecking our government and our economy? These former presidents should mobilize the citizenry from the grassroots to the Capitol and take on the unpopular Tyrant Trump. Having sworn to uphold the Constitution and ‘… take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ they should strongly uphold their patriotic duty to resist tyranny and save our Republic and our besieged democratic institutions, and stop the assault on our civil liberties and civil rights. Our former presidents all get along with each other. … [T]hey are living luxurious lives and are largely AWOL from connecting with the existing but overwhelmed civic opposition to Trump.” (03/28/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ex-presidents-cowards-trump
- At home and abroad, Trump’s mission creep makes victory impossible
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Matt K Lewis“Whether it’s reopening the strait or funding DHS, Trump’s goalposts keep moving, and as a result, Democrats are largely insulated from the public’s blame for the airport mess. Democrats can’t be expected to end this impasse because Trump can’t even settle on a set of demands to which they could agree. This is Trump’s M.O. with Iran as well. His stated objectives have cycled through a full and complete surrender, regime change, deterrence, de-escalation, boots on the ground, blowing up power plants in 48 hours, and then backing off based on ‘productive conversations.’ (Not to mention that Trump ran for office promising to end ‘forever wars,’ not start new ones.) Trump — whose underlying belief is that pressure always produces capitulation — assumes he can bluster and bully his opponents into submission. But that only works if the other side agrees to play by those rules.” (03/27/26)
- War and Morality
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“War is the most horrific series of events upon which any government can engage. It is systematic, industrialized, indiscriminate killing. It kills innocent adults and little girls. It often ruins the post-war lives of the killers. It is young men violently fighting old men’s power games. It is the health of the state. The war President Donald Trump is waging against the people and the government of Iran is immoral, unconstitutional and unlawful. Yet, because Congress is not doing its job, there appears to be no relief in sight until Trump finds a face-saving way to erase his grave mistake from the public’s long memory.” (03/27/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/03/26/war-and-morality
- Two Primary Elections for the Soul of “America First”
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Alan Mosley“Midterm elections are where slogans go to trial. Primaries, especially, are where interests that cannot reliably win a general election try to win the nomination. They do it with money, with media saturation, and with the oldest trick in politics: framing obedience as unity. This year, two Republican races show the fork in the road. In northern Kentucky, Rep. Thomas Massie is fighting a primary that has become a national vendetta project. In South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham is seeking a fifth term while publicly linking his political identity to a foreign-policy crusade, and treating dissent at home as a moral failing. If Massie survives and Graham falls, it signals that Republican voters still have room for independence, constitutional friction, and skepticism toward overseas commitments. If Massie loses and Graham wins, it signals the reverse: the slogan becomes a mascot for power, not a restraint on it.” (03/27/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/two-primary-elections-for-the-soul-of-america-first
- Ukraine can teach the US about the future of warfare
Source: New York Post
by Dalibor Rohac“Here’s a number that should make every American wince: $4 million. That’s what it costs to fire a single Patriot interceptor missile. Here’s another: $30,000. That’s an estimated price tag of an Iranian Shahed drone — the kind that Tehran has been lobbing across the Persian Gulf at US bases and allied cities since the start of the war four weeks ago. In other words, we’re spending at least 100 times more to shoot down each drone than our enemies spend to build one. And it’s not just the cost that’s a problem — it’s also our production capacity. … Just replenishing those weapons at current production capacity will require 18 months. That is no way to fight against Iran, much less against a larger adversary like China or Russia.” (03/27/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/27/opinion/ukraine-can-teach-the-us-about-the-future-of-warfare/
- Betting on Better Governance
Source: Isonomia Quarterly
by George Agbesi & Joshua D Ammons“At one point, Gordon Tullock thought taxi medallions were inefficient but intractable institutions, a classic example of what he called the transitional gains trap. The medallion system persisted not because it served the public, but because the rents it generated were capitalized into medallion prices, making any reform politically impossible. Then came Uber, and within a matter of years this supposedly permanent institution crumbled. What if a similar technology shock could do the same for societies lacking the rule of law?” (03/27/26)
https://isonomiamag.substack.com/p/betting-on-better-governance
- The unreligious religiosity of Christian identity politics
Source: Washington Post
by Matthew Schmitz“Far from being a sign of resurgent faith, Christian identity politics is a symptom of religious decline. As one observer has noted, the fact that Americans are growing more secular and less religiously literate has made religion more salient as a marker of political difference, even as invocations of it become less informed.” (03/27/26)
- Fecklessly Fining 4chan
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“You host a website. Users can say whatever they want on this site. Next thing you know, a UK regulatory agency is sending you, an American organization based in the United States, a letter announcing a trillion-dollar fine for failure to comply with UK censorship demands. How much do you panic? If you’re 4chan, not much.” (03/27/26)
- How the Republican Party Forgot It Was Conservative
Source: The American Prospect
by Paul Starr“The main theme in much writing on contemporary politics is how ideologically polarized Democrats and Republicans have become. But the truly consequential change is that Republicans have broken with their own past. Under Donald Trump, the party hasn’t just reversed its positions on specific policies. It has routinely betrayed basic tenets of the conservative philosophy that Republicans have long claimed was the bedrock of their party. No one is shocked by Trump’s betrayals. What is more surprising is that most Republicans haven’t seemed to care. I’ve been thinking about the Republican betrayal of the party’s own tradition because of a comment about my work by Glenn Loury, the conservative Black economist. When I was on The Glenn Show in December, he criticized my new book American Contradiction because of my ‘apparent disregard for the positive contributions of conservative thought and policy to American life.'” (03/27/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/03/27/apr-2026-magazine-how-republican-party-forgot-it-was-conservative/
- To End the Iran War, Trump Must Divorce Israel
Source: The American Conservative
by Andrew Day“As analysts have emphasized, Tehran ‘gets a vote’ as to when this war ends, and it doesn’t plan to stop until the U.S. and Israel learn that attacking Iran comes with high costs and shouldn’t be repeated in the future. The U.S., unable to hammer out an agreement, has been hammering Iran to coerce it to the negotiating table. … The Trump administration misunderstands the nature of the problem. To end the war, it needs to get tough not with America’s adversary, but with its cobelligerent: Israel.” (03/27/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/to-end-the-iran-war-trump-must-divorce-israel/
- The Focus Group Podcast, 03/28/26
Source: The Bulwark
“PSA: AI is NOT Your Boyfriend!! (with Megan McArdle).” (03/28/26)
- Serious Trouble, 03/27/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Judge Lewis Kaplan wants to know what lawyers are helping Sam Bankman-Fried, including mom; the Pentagon is having trouble in the courts; judges make divergent rules about attorney AI disclosure.” (03/27/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 03/27/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“New York Times: ’13 U.S. Bases Uninhabitable’ — We Could’ve Just Marched Home.” (03/27/26)
- Radio Rothbard, 03/27/26
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
“What Would a Strategic Victory Look Like in Iran?” (03/27/26)
https://mises.org/podcasts/radio-rothbard/what-would-strategic-victory-look-iran
- Reason Interview: Taylor Lorenz
Source: Reason
“Is Social Media Responsible for Bad Parenting?” (03/27/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/03/27/taylor-lorenz-is-social-media-responsible-for-bad-parenting/
- Patrick Pillow on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Patrick Pillow on Washington’s Preferred Method of Regime Change.” (03/27/26)
- Real Unity, episode 12
Source: Free the People
“Are The Handmaid’s Tale Costumes Justified? | Hannah Cox.” (03/27/26)
- Rising, 03/27/26
Source: The Hill
“Lindsey Granger gives her lens on President Trump saying Iran is eager to make a deal to end the war, while Iranian leadership rejects that notion.” (03/27/26)
- The Brian Nichols Show, 03/27/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Republicans Are Losing Because of ONE Word?” (03/27/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/tbns-republicans-are-losing-because-of-one-word
- The Political Orphanage, 03/27/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Interview with the Mega Warden.” (03/27/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/interview-with-the-mega-warden